Lon-ly Doo-liss
by Tsutarja-cuteness101
Summary: A strange creature finds himself in a weird town, where the inhabitants are only awake at dusk, with no memory of anything beforehand. But...surely, that doesn't mean anything bad will happen, does it? (Will have some swearing and skimmed-over violence in later chapters. Some chapters might be small, since this story started out without them.)
1. Chapter 1

_Monster_  
_ _ _ _ seemed to get called that an awful lot, though he had no idea why.  
He hadn't done anything, really. Nothing that he considered worthy of that word.

And why was he suddenly being called that anyway? Suddenly being shunned by the people around him?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When he first arrived in Twilight Town, he had been homeless, starving, and close to death. He couldn't quite remember what happened beforehand—it was nothing more than a big blur, and, try as he might, he could never make it anything more.  
But, regardless of his mysterious origin and ultimately strange appearance, the townsfolk took him in, and nursed him back to health.

Upon being asked for his name, he found a strange reluctance to give it, though it was the only thing he remembered about himself.  
Shoving the hesitance aside, he introduced himself to those who asked.  
Being called by his name sent a chill down his spine for some reason, but, as more and more people tried to talk to him, he got used to it.

The conversations he had, while stuck recovering in the resident doctor's home, were boring and repetitive, even if they initially appeared like they'd go to something exciting.  
Everyone's first meeting went down the same way, asking who and what he was, and how he came here and why. They usually left disappointed, as most of their questions even the creature himself was left wondering.

The next several meetings were varied between person to person, but mostly fell into two categories anyway.  
With the first one, those that spoke to him always wanted to know if he had remembered anything yet, being stubborn and persistent, to the point of accusing him of lying, though he couldn't see any reason for that.  
As for the other category, it had the more helpful people, whom tried to explain how things were around the town, occasionally offering to give him a tour, though he insisted on checking it out for himself.  
Either way, while this was informative at first, it took very few visits for him to realize there ultimately wasn't much to life here, as he continued to hear the same tidbits over and over.

The town was completely peaceful, if a bit iffy when it came to people's personalities.  
See, Twilight Town was best seen at dusk, which always seemed to last, _ _ _ _ suspected, longer than normal, which tended to make it seem like it lasted forever, though anyone who stayed there long enough would know better.  
On top of that, it appeared to have a strange effect on the ragdoll-like inhabitants, making them dreary and depressing, or a little too interested in the creepy and unusual.  
At least the children were peppy enough for his tastes, or, maybe, just easily influenced by the outsider's mischievous nature.  
It got to the point where, after he was finally released, he purposely sought them out.

Together with these children, he made his first friends…  
…A fact which he greatly appreciated, even if he wasn't too overly fond of them personally.  
No one wanted to be alone after all, and he disliked the other residents. Thus, he adored the children anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take long before _ _ _ _ found himself simply sleeping in trees or on the ground during the day, while everyone else got a nice warm bed and a safe, cozy house.

As time rolled on, once the adults lost interest in him, the kids found out about his living arrangements.

 _You can't live in a tree! They told him. That's not a home!_

 **But where else can I live?  
** **All the houses around here are completely full.**

…  
About half a second later, he was being dragged through the forest, towards a building he vaguely remembered as a place his friends had, multiple times, been warned not to go near by their parents.  
Apparently, the place was haunted, and…that…..actually seemed to be about it, really.  
The Creepy Steeple, as the children affectionately referred to it, was rumored to be full of ghosts. Nothing more, nothing less.  
As far as he was concerned, nobody had ever checked the place out to make sure the rumors were true or not.  
…Though, now, that last statement was technically wrong.

Still, he cautiously shuffled in, worried something might pop out and try to eat him.  
He was fairly certain he was far from tasty, but he didn't feel like risking it.

However, the children assured him all was fine. They visited this place periodically as a sort of test of courage, though they hadn't been able to bring him to it before because he attracted too much attention.  
Nothing had ever attacked when they were here. Not once.

 **It's probably because you're all in a group.**

Of course, they didn't listen.  
Rather, they insisted on him living here now, though they had never gotten past the first floor, and had no idea if this place was even livable beyond that.

Sighing, his will against such a thing eventually faltered, evidenced by him floating up to the second floor to scope things out.

The most interesting thing, so far, was the giant window, which looked like it had been formed to have stained glass.  
Unfortunately, said glass was completely clean, devoid of any color aside from what filtered in from the world beyond.  
…Perhaps he'd fix that later.

Trudging into another room, he headed upstairs to get a little looksee.  
To his surprise, the room he had found was a bit more…homey than the rest of the place.  
It was pretty well furnished for what was mostly an abandoned, barren building. There was no bed, but he could certainly make do without one.

Upon investigating deeper, however, he noticed everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and there was completely rotted food in the fridge.  
Even for one that hardly ate, finding out that last lovely fact made him want to puke.

Not finding anything else of interest in his look-over, he headed back down to inform the others of the place's condition.

They promptly left after that, telling him to wait where he was. And, though it aggravated him, he did as he was told.  
Hopefully, they weren't trying to abandon him here…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

…Lo and behold, about two hours later (he had counted the minutes by drawing lines in the dirt), his friends returned, cleaning supplies in hand.

 **What took you guys so long?**

 _It was hard to explain to our parents why we needed these._  
 _Eventually, they gave up._

He sighed.  
Guess that was that, then…though he wasn't too sure about this.  
After all, they hadn't convinced their parents of anything, had they? What was stopping those adults from following their kids?

Once inside, the children revealed their plan—to clean the top room!  
However, that required him to carry them up to the next floor, as they couldn't get there themselves...

…And, as should have been expected, the very moment he finally agreed to that, adults stormed into the steeple.  
His friends' parents to be precise.

That was far enough, and how dare they disobey their parents.  
They were in a lot of trouble now.  
His friends tried desperately to explain they had only come in because they needed to get him a home, but that merely made the situation worse.  
Their words were misinterpreted, and, suddenly, it was _his_ fault they had gone against the rules.

Before _ _ _ _ knew what was happening, he was "a bad influence" and "suspicious from the very start".  
The kids "should have never been allowed around" him.  
…Nor would they ever be again.

He was left alone, with parting words forbidding him from ever seeing his friends again…


	3. Chapter 3

He stayed around the first floor of the steeple, staring at the cleaning supplies that had been left behind.

There was an empty feeling in his chest, one he hated quite a bit.  
But his hatred of that didn't match the burning anger he felt towards the adults.  
He hadn't done anything wrong! Why was he getting left all alone!? And if he was being blamed, why were his friends still getting punished!?

…After a while longer of seething, he finally settled into the idea that it wasn't going to help anything, as well as, he needed to do something. So, reluctant as it was, he grabbed the supplies and went up to clean.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By the time he was finished, several hours later (the work required being a lot more than he initially thought, as well as the breaks he had to take in-between), the room was starting to look much better.  
The fridge was, sadly, completely cleared out, while he'd need to replace the old, ratty rug with a new one, but he felt proud nonetheless.

Once he made sure nothing had been missed, he went to the large window the room had, to stare out at everything below.  
It was quite the impressive view, especially as the sun was beginning to rise. He hesitated to call it beautiful, though.

Could something you hated really be beautiful…?

Sighing to himself, he tore away from the view, then climbed into the single chair in the room.  
Home sweet home, he supposed…  
…even if it cost him his only company…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next several weeks went by with…nothing much happening at all.  
No one came to visit or torment him, so he was completely alone…or, at least, he was fairly sure he was alone.  
That _giggling_ that came from somewhere down in the basement could only be his imagination at this point, as nothing had ever come to interact with him, and everything stayed exactly as he'd left it.

_ _ _ _ flipped through the available channels on the tv, trying to watch several things every now and again, only to decide there wasn't anything interesting on every time.

Several days' time proved enough for him to explore every nook and cranny of the Steeple, though the most he found was a bright, ruby red, star-shaped, gem-looking…thing…  
…As well as a chest with voices coming out of it, but he didn't dare touch that.  
He preferred to go un-cursed by whatever this place possessed.

Regardless, eventually, the boredom got to him, forcing him out, however short his little trips were.  
He typically found himself heading back to town, though he refused to actually go in.  
He simply skirted around the very edge, staying away from where the adults usually gathered. If they still remembered the incident, he didn't want to be spotted.

…Unfortunately, that never seemed to stay as an 'if' for very long.

Though they were usually hard to hear, he still found himself catching snippets of "who tricked the kids" and "he still hasn't come down from the steeple".  
"Maybe he died."  
"That little monster."

 _…_ _Monster?_  
He was a _monster_ to them? Over one little misunderstanding?  
Surely, they didn't think the Creepy Steeple was that dangerous or that he was truly meaning to harm the kids, did they?

…Or, perhaps, they had thought he was a monster from the very beginning. Just one that didn't cause trouble.  
Either way, he hated the word.

The way they used it, the way it came out of their mouths…  
…It was an insult, and he had done nothing to deserve being insulted like that.


	4. Chapter 4

During one of his travels down, the so-called monster hid near the trees that typically housed crows.

He hadn't realized it until then, but the crows were rather chatty, especially since they either didn't notice him, or simply didn't care that he was there.  
But their talking made it difficult to hear the adults, causing him to hear mostly things he didn't care about instead.

…Of course, intelligent beings like the crows couldn't speak nonsense all the time, and, right when he was about to give up and leave…

"Ah, did you hear about that boy?  
The duplighost?"

"Mmm, yes. That duplighost that lives in the abandoned steeple, you mean?"

Duplighost?  
Were they talking about him?

"That's the one! Though, I can't seem to recall his name…  
Gladys said she saw him sneaking around the houses the other day!"

Gladys? Was that another crow?

"Oh? I wonder what he was up to…"

"I'm sure he was just looking for someone to play with!  
That poor child…He must feel lonely without any family or friends…"

He had half a mind to chase those birds away now, though he never did.  
There was something else gnawing at him…

 **Excuse me? Miss crows?**  
 **What's a duplighost?**

They were surprised to see him, not that he expected any less.  
Much to his own surprise, however, they did not immediately accuse him of eavesdropping; at least, not on purpose.

"A duplighost is a type of creature that can take the form of anyone they see."

 **And how do you know I'm one?**

"Why, because you look like one of course!"

 **Then…how do I transform…?**

…They couldn't answer that one. If their word was to be believed, they didn't know.  
However…he had a sinking feeling that he was being lied to, even if he wouldn't dare act on it, right now.

With his head full of questions, he slunk away from the birds and back "home", heading straight up to his room.

The first, and only, things he found himself doing after that was grab the star gem he was still keeping around, then flopping onto his chair.  
He didn't even know why he decided to hold the gem like this. It just…made everything feel less confusing, somehow.  
…Without realizing it, he had fallen asleep like that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_ _ _ _ woke up the next morning to the echoes of the Steeple door being pounded on.  
But that was ridiculous, he told himself. No one was around to do so, and no one would ever be…

…However, just when he started drifting back off into sleep…

 ** _CRASH!_**

Something collided with his head, making him yelp at the sudden, sharp pain.  
He sat up, rubbing the injured spot, and glancing around for the offending object.

In all honestly, he expected it to be a very confused bird; nothing else could make it all the way up to where he slept, after all…right?

It seemed he had a habit of assuming wrongly, as he spotted a rock he knew for a fact hadn't been there before innocently sitting on the floor, having bounced off of his head.

Looking back towards the window, he immediately noticed it was broken, and the shards were everywhere.  
…That meant someone had to have thrown the rock in, didn't it? But how on earth had they managed to get it all the way up _here_?

Uncaringly stepping on the glass shards, he poked his head out the new hole in the window—just in time for another rock to barely graze his cheek as it sailed into his room.  
Of course, where the baby boulder failed, the glass did not, lodging itself into his face.

Hissing in pain, he yanked it out, tossing it aside to be dealt with later.  
Behind him (or, well, below), his assailants appeared to have finally realized they had his attention.

_ _ _ _ _!_

He cringed, fighting down the urge to vomit.  
It had been a long time since anyone had called him by his name, thus it was affecting him again.  
In all honesty, he thought no one even remembered it…

 _Finally! We've been trying to get in for over an hour!_  
 _Why'd you lock your door?_

…Ah, yes, now that he was thinking a bit more, he remembered that voice.  
His old friends had come to see him…though, he didn't know how or why.  
Either way, he stuck his head out the hole again, figuring it was safer this time.

 **Shouldn't you guys be back in town? I thought you weren't allowed to ever see me again?**

 _We're not!_  
 _We managed to convince our parents to let us wander again!_  
 _…_  
 _Can you come down here to talk, though?_

Sighing, he headed down and unlocked the door, spending the entire trip mentally preparing himself for when the adults inevitably came rushing in again.  
Then he'd get in even more trouble…

…Miraculously, that didn't happen at all.  
The first fifteen minutes of their visit was spent with the kids (one of them holding a homemade slingshot) telling him all about the things he missed, the tasks they had to do to earn their parents' trust back…completely without a single sign of anyone coming to ruin the moment.

Of course, outsiders weren't really needed to ruin it this time.  
Though unintentional, and he knew they meant well, the children did that just fine on their own.

 _Everyone's been calling you a monster lately…they keep saying things like you 'were going to feed us' to whatever they think lives here…_  
 _Some of them are convinced you're the dangerous thing that lives here…_

Him? _Dangerous_?  
What nonsense! Both he and the kids knew perfectly well that he hadn't harmed a fly since he got here.  
For all anyone knew about him, he wasn't dangerous in the least…

…Of course, the crows knew otherwise, didn't they…? And now, the duplighost, himself, knew too…  
Even if he was unsure of how…

 _That's our fault, isn't it?_  
 _Sorry,_ _ _ _ _ _! We swear we didn't mean for this to happen!_

 **…** **It's fine…**

...No...it wasn't fine.  
The empty feeling inside of him had grown bigger over the days…and bigger still, as he thought about it.  
He had spent his days in boredom and misery…not that he'd tell them that.

 **…** **Listen…**  
 **I think I remembered something about myself…**

Dare he…?

Asking that proved unnecessary, as, a moment later, he was shifting his form into each of his friends, one by one, much to their amazement.  
They clapped for him, told him how cool he was, and how awesome it was he could do that…

…That was a feeling he enjoyed greatly.  
It felt like he was something special, someone important.  
With such an interesting ability, he was definitely worthy of praise, wasn't he?

Letting his head swell, pride he never even realized he had easily getting the better of him, the monster transformed into whatever his friends wanted and pranced around like that for a little while, until they implored him to try something else.

Eventually, the sun started peeking over the horizon, signaling it was time for the kids to go home.  
And, much happier than he had been for a long time, an exhausted _ _ _ _ headed back inside, to sleep until they returned…


	5. Chapter 5

The days passed much faster than they did before, as the group of kids made infrequent visits, going at seemingly random times, so as to come off less suspicious to the adults.  
But he didn't mind in the slightest. It made him all the more happy when they did show up.  
…Especially when he finally wizened up and left the front door unlocked.

Heck, within a month or two, he had gotten confident enough in just how safe they were now that he started walking home with them.  
He still stayed out of the town, out of sight, obviously, but that didn't stop him from striding alongside them for most of the trip there…

What it did do, however, was put a damper on his spirits.

Once that habit started up, he started sticking around longer and longer, to watch them reunite with their families from behind the trees.

I'm home!  
We're home!  
And oh, welcome home…how much they were missed…  
Dinner was ready as well.  
Or just getting cold.  
Or about to be made.

It made the empty feeling return, only for him to, initially, choose to ignore it.  
Ignoring it, while appearing effective at first, was immediately rendered useless one dusk, when, upon returning to the Creepy Steeple, he caught himself shouting to absolutely no one:

 **I'm home!**

…He had never done that before. Not once.  
In his head, perhaps, but never aloud, like someone was actually there to hear him.  
To welcome him back, hug him, tell him he was missed…

He was all alone here…  
Completely alone…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_ _ _ _ quickly discovered he was, apparently, innately good at acting.

While his emptiness grew, the visits seemed less and less fun.  
Eventually, he had grown to despise his friends, though he never meant to.

They didn't know how much it hurt to see them. How badly he wished he had their lives…  
Never would they know, either, if he had anything to say about it.

He maintained a cheerful facade, "happily" continuing to change as they asked, or indulging in whatever games they played.  
He listened to their occasional rants about how suffocating or horrible their parents were, all the while perfectly pretending he actually cared.

…He was a good friend for that, wasn't he?  
He could have told them how much he wished they'd leave him alone.  
He could have challenged them to live his life and see how much they wanted to complain about having a family after a few months in isolation.  
But he didn't.

Honestly, thinking it over before he fell asleep, the creature wasn't entirely sure why he spared them.  
Perhaps he was simply grateful for their company, even if he wouldn't allow himself to admit it.  
Then there was the fact that he had already tasted being completely alone, and still feared it happening again…

Either way, within a few weeks, the faking managed to take its toll on him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On one particular day, he hadn't been able to sleep at all, due to being unable to chase the strangely blissful thoughts of being one of his friends, living life like that without a care in the world. And he'd be damned if he fell asleep, and dreamt of such things.

So, when dusk came, bringing his friends along, he was too tired to act. Whatever god that existed knew he tried, but it came off half-hearted.  
Thus, his friends easily saw through it.

 _What's wrong,_ _ _ _ _ _? You don't seem like your usual self today…_

He didn't want to tell them anything; the last thing he needed was another misunderstanding.  
…but he had to respond with something, and he couldn't pretend nothing was wrong. That lie would be far too obvious…

 **…** **I guess…I just…**  
 **…** **I'm a little envious of you guys, I suppose…**

Envious? Had that always been a word he knew?  
He couldn't remember ever hearing it before…  
Maybe it had been hiding with his still-forgotten past.

 _Envious…?_

 **I mean…I…wish I had a family too…**

It was painful to admit. At the same time, it was the safest truth he could tell them.  
All that was left now was to hope for the best…

What he was expecting—hoping for, really—was the kids simply shrugging it off and continuing their games without a second thought.  
What he got was them suddenly excusing themselves, and hurrying off, much to _ _ _ _'s surprise…and annoyance.

Where were they going? Why were they leaving?  
Did they decide it was too awkward to be around him now?  
…No, no.  
That couldn't be it, he assured himself. They would come back, like they did before.

And so, he waited…  
And waited…  
And waited…

…Until, a bit too soon for his liking, the sun started to rise.  
It was too late for them to come back now; no way they'd be allowed out after daybreak.

Giving a slight, paranoid chuckle, he trudged back into his house, back up to his room, without a word.  
Rather than go to his chair, however, he simply found the crystal star, then, upon picking it up, flopped down right there. Without really thinking, the duplighost curled around it, closing his eyes.

This thing…whatever it was…quickly put his heart at ease, similar to the last time he held it.

And, when he had finally calmed, he soon drifted into sleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How long had it been now…? Months?

Long enough that he had time to test out another thing that had entered his mind, after trying to use the Star to calm himself down again.

Poor unsuspecting Gladys…  
She wound up being his first test subject, thanks to her and her friends being all too trusting of the monster.

…Of course, it didn't really come off that way.  
He was nice enough to turn everything back to normal after a couple hours.

Either way, he had confirmed something:  
He could steal someone's body without anyone, except him and the victim, realizing it.  
Sure, it'd require better acting than before, but he was sure he'd do just fine. After all, he seemed to be pretty good at it last time…

Either way, he headed back to the Steeple, making his way back to his room.  
That small test had taken quite a bit out of him, though he didn't realize it during his accomplishment high earlier…

Crawling into his chair, he plopped down, and tried to sleep.

…Of course, that's always when one's mind tends to wander.

All this time, though, and his "friends" still hadn't come back yet…  
There wasn't even a hint that they would either.

_ _ _ _ gave a slight growl thinking about it, angry he had been abandoned for something so stupid.  
They asked what was wrong, after all. If they were going to ditch him afterwards…

Something dark flicked towards the bottom of his sight, but he wasn't paying enough attention to know what it was.  
He was too busy seething.

Those stupid brats…  
He couldn't believe he was ever happy around them if this was how—

_ _ _ _ _!_

He recoiled, a bit of bile almost escaping, but he swallowed it back down.  
That voice…

 _Hey,_ _ _ _ _ _! Come down here, we have something to show you!_

…It couldn't be…could it…?

Hurrying down, he swung the front door open with very little thought, other than, 'They came back?'  
They really had come back to the Steeple? To visit him?

…Strangely, his rush ended with him face to face with a parrot.  
A bright green one, to be precise.

 **W-what…?**

 _He's a present!_

He peeked around the bird, noticing that one of his friends was holding the parrot up, and everyone else was in a little group behind them.

 _You said you wanted a family, so…_  
 _…_ _well…pets can be family!_  
 _Sorry we were gone so long. We had to collect the money for him…_  
 _And we wanted him to be a surprise!_  
 _What do you think?_

He stared at his new "family member" dubiously…and somewhat offended.

He wanted a family.  
They gave him a _bird_.

There were plenty of crows around Twilight Town. If he really wanted a bird family, he could easily go get one.

The monster stared at them, wondering if they were really being serious about this. If they really thought a freaking bird was going to make him happy.  
…But, perhaps, he was being a bit too harsh on them.  
They had no idea how his loneliness felt, and, thus, no real understanding of how to cure it.

 **…** **Thanks, you guys…**  
 **…** **Does he have a name yet?**

 _Nope! We're leaving his name up to you!_

 **…** **Thanks…**

He took the parrot, staring at it with barely hidden contempt.  
What a stupid, nameless thing. He hated it. He couldn't muster anything but hate for it.

Part of him knew it was wrong; his friends had done a lot of work to get enough money to afford him this "family member". He should at least feel grateful…  
…He just…couldn't.

Not after so long.

Hiding that as best as he could, however, he and his friends played around with the new parrot, teaching it phrases and such until it was time to go home.  
By then, it had gotten quite a few good things it could say, and, with time and care, would probably learn when to say them and such…

…He chose to leave it in the main room.


End file.
